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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Gam3rBlake, post: 7747429, member: 115909&quot;]But I read gold coins were usually used for larger purchases like slaves, houses, etc.,</p><p><br /></p><p>I imagine slaves &amp; houses were sold pretty regularly based on how many slaves there were and how many houses there were.</p><p><br /></p><p>However while I’m sure that the “normal” average citizen rarely used gold coinage it must have been relatively common among the rich.</p><p><br /></p><p>If you take a look at some of these donativum (bribes for loyalty made by the Emperor to the soldiers) they are extremely high compared to the average daily pay of 1 denarius.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1326542[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>If you were a soldier would you rather receive 3,750 denarii (roughly 22 lbs of silver) or would you rather receive 150 aureii (about 3 lbs of gold)?</p><p><br /></p><p>I always assumed the Emperors paid mostly with aureii rather than denarii since they would take up less space and be much lighter</p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;Another example was the “honesta missio” which was a payment to soldiers who had completed their term of services with the legions.</p><p><br /></p><p>It was 12,000 sesterces or 3,000 denari which would also be much easier to pay with mostly gold aureii and the rest with silver denarii for smaller transactions.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1326543[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Basically it seems that the average person (at least for soldiers) had a lot more money than people would think today. So it seems likely to me that some of it would be in gold and with so many soldiers that would make gold coins pretty common.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Just from donativums &amp; honesta missio soldiers would receive nearly 20 years. pay on top of their regular pay of 1 denarius per day.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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